Don’t quite have this bike thing figured out!

It’s Christmas Day. I’ve got a 75-minute bike ride on the schedule for tomorrow, and I’m not sure how I’m going to work that in. We’ll be staying at my in-laws tonight, and since I haven’t been working out a triathlon training schedule for long, I don’t even know if they have a stationary bike at their house. They have a treadmill, I know that, but I’m supposed to do a bike ride tomorrow. I could take my bike and ride outside, but I’m not yet sure how to take my bike apart safely so I can fit it in my car – when my whole family is in the car. So… we’ve got some downtime post-Santa fun, and I’ve approached my husband about biking on Christmas.

He’s awesome and he agrees. So, I fuel up (eat), get all bundled up, pump up my tires (I’ve got that figured out) and head out.

My coach has sent me some gear, and it’s cool new stuff (arm warmers, little windbreaker things for my feet, a bright yellow jacket), and I’m pretty sure I’ve over-dressed.

I soon realize that I am not at all over-dressed. There are parts of me – my fingers and butt – that are quite cold. Figured that wrong.

It doesn’t seem too windy so I head out 38 minutes. Well it was a little over 38 minutes because I found a parking lot to turn around in so I wouldn’t need to unclip. (Chicken! I still avoid unclipping whenever possible…) Mistake. I turn around into much more of a headwind than I expected! Yikes, when you go on a run and you slow 1 minute per mile due to wind, it only accounts for a few minutes. When you’ve biked out 10 miles and now you’re slowing down a little more than a minute per mile, you are now going to get home 15 minutes later than you thought you would. My husband, who will be anxious to leave to go to his parents and who knows I’m not super confident on the bike, will probably be worried.

I’m tensed up, going against the wind and knowing that I just turned my 75 minute bike ride into a 90 minute one.

Oh well. Time to admit: I don’t quite have this bike thing figured out!!